The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

UK magazine Screen International recently published their annual UK Stars of Tomorrow issue and included in this year’s list were Emilia Clarke and Harry Lloyd. Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow is a prestigious list that in the past has featured James McAvoy, Robert Pattinson, Emily Blunt, Dev Patel, Carey Mulligan, Aaron Johnson and many other young actors before they became stars. Screen International was kind enough to send me an issue so I could post what they have to say about our two Targaryen siblings:

Harry Lloyd’s career has shifted up several gears over the past six months. His witty, sensitive performance as a rent boy in The Little Dog Laughed at London’s Garrick Theatre this year had critics and casting directors roaring their approval. “He’s brilliant, an all-rounder who works as well on screen as he does on stage,” says one casting director. Lloyd has wrapped Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre and is about to start on the first series of HBO’s Game Of Thrones, in which he plays an embittered pretender to a royal throne. It is a part, he says, that allows him to turn on the nastiness. Working between the stage and the screen (his TV roles include a scene-stealing cameo in the BBC’s Doctor Who) has meant familiarising himself with the different rhythms of the mediums: “In film, you have to switch on immediately; in theatre, you can rev it up gradually,” says Lloyd. “I love both and I just want to keep on doing interesting work.”

Expect to see rather a lot of Emilia Clarke in the near future. One year out of Drama Centre London and, after filming the SyFy channel film Fossils last autumn, she was cast as Daenerys in Game Of Thrones, the HBO adaptation of George RR Martin’s fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire which shoots from July. She plays the female lead who grows from being a submissive, vulnerable teenage orphan to a powerful independent woman – and it is a role that will propel her into the international spotlight.

But she will not just have to ensure that nerves do not get the better of her playing opposite the likes of Sean Bean and Iain Glen – “I’ll immerse myself so much into the character that I won’t have time to get starstruck,” she says – for the production has already got the internet messageboards heaving with excitement. “I don’t want to disappoint,” she says.

Winter Is Coming: Great to see the young stars getting some recognition. Of course, Harry Lloyd has been front and center as the actor most willing to talk about Thrones. We know he is relishing the opportunity to play a real bastard like Viserys. The exciting thing to me was to read the write-up on Clarke and see how she is approaching the character of Daenerys. It’s a great write-up (love the nod to the online buzz!) and it sounds like she has got the right approach. Can’t wait to see these two on screen!

• Published on 07/20/2010 at 8:26 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 5:14 PM CDT